What are strategic considerations for email list validation and alternative approaches to identifying who to email?

Marketer from Email Geeks shares their strategy of using validation tools on sets of emails that have stopped receiving messages due to inactivity. Invalid emails are opted out, and risky emails are spot-checked, and they also maintain a list of typo domains to opt out. They also note frustration about ESPs not hard bouncing typo domains.

Email marketer from Emailonacid.com discusses strategies for avoiding spam traps, which are email addresses used by mailbox providers and anti-spam organizations to identify spammers. They recommend practicing proper list hygiene, avoiding purchased lists, and implementing double opt-in to minimize the risk of sending emails to spam traps.

Email marketer from G2.com provides a comparison of email validation services and highlights their benefits in terms of improving deliverability and reducing bounce rates. They recommend using email validation services to identify and remove invalid, risky, or inactive email addresses from lists, ultimately improving email marketing performance.

Email marketer from MarketingOverCoffee Forum shares that they regularly clean their email list by removing subscribers who haven't opened an email in six months. They also segment their list based on purchase history and engagement levels to send more targeted emails.

Email marketer from Reddit user r/emailmarketing suggests running re-engagement campaigns to identify inactive subscribers who may still be interested in receiving emails. They recommend sending targeted emails with compelling offers or valuable content to encourage subscribers to re-engage with the brand, and then removing those who don't respond from the list.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests focusing on 'Who should I email?' instead of 'Who should I drop?' and recommends using segmentation around real engagement to identify subscribers who could still be emailed from large inactive files.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign suggests automating the process of identifying and engaging active vs inactive users. Automatically segmenting and moving people into engagement programs based on website visits, email opens, and form submissions to focus resources.

Email marketer from HubSpot suggests using lead scoring to identify and prioritize the most engaged and qualified leads in an email list. They explain that lead scoring involves assigning points to leads based on their behaviors and attributes, such as website visits, email opens, and form submissions, and then focusing marketing efforts on the leads with the highest scores.

Email marketer from NeilPatel.com suggests focusing on identifying and nurturing engaged subscribers by tracking metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and website visits. He recommends segmenting email lists based on engagement levels and tailoring content to resonate with each segment, ultimately improving deliverability and ROI.

Email marketer from Litmus.com advocates for implementing sunset policies, which involve automatically removing inactive subscribers from email lists after a certain period of time. He explains that sunset policies can help improve deliverability by reducing the number of emails sent to unengaged recipients, ultimately boosting sender reputation.

Email marketer from Sendinblue.com emphasizes the importance of permission-based email marketing, where subscribers explicitly opt-in to receive emails. They explain that acquiring email addresses through ethical and transparent means, such as signup forms and double opt-in processes, can help build a healthy and engaged email list, reducing the risk of spam complaints and improving deliverability.

Expert from Email Geeks questions the utility of validation for actively emailed, deliverable addresses, implying it may not provide new insights.

Expert from Spam Resource (Laura Atkins) explains how to handle list bombing attacks and states that “List bombing is an attack by a third party designed to damage a company’s reputation, overload resources, or take down their mail stream entirely” and goes on to describe the methods of mitigating the attack.

Expert from Spam Resource advises that for maximum deliverability, the sender should ensure that the user provides the email, explicitly consents to receiving email, and has the ability to cease communication. This permission should be considered more important than technical aspects for getting email delivered. Focus on 'Do people WANT your email?'

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that list hygiene needs to happen all the time and it isn't enough to simply mail to the list. You need to be sure people are engaging, you are handling bounces, and more. It isn't sufficient to simply do list cleaning once a year.

Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the importance of removing inactive subscribers, especially if they haven't engaged in over a year, as they are likely to become spam traps. They explain that it is better to send an email to a smaller group of people to see if they are interested than continue emailing people who don't engage.

Documentation from Validity.com emphasizes that a clean and engaged email list is crucial for maintaining a strong sender reputation and achieving optimal deliverability. They highlight that regularly validating email lists by removing invalid addresses, spam traps, and disengaged subscribers can significantly improve email performance.

Documentation from Mailjet.com provides a detailed overview of list segmentation strategies, including demographic, behavioral, and psychographic segmentation. They explain how segmenting email lists based on specific criteria can enable marketers to send more relevant and personalized emails, leading to higher engagement rates and improved deliverability.

Documentation from Microsoft SNDS explains how to monitor IP reputation and identify potential deliverability issues. They provide tools for tracking spam complaints, bounce rates, and other metrics that can impact IP reputation, and offer guidance on how to address any problems that may arise.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools emphasizes the importance of maintaining a positive sender reputation for optimal email deliverability. They explain that sender reputation is based on factors such as spam complaints, bounce rates, and authentication practices, and provide tools for monitoring and improving sender reputation.

Documentation from SparkPost.com outlines best practices for bounce management, including distinguishing between hard bounces (permanent delivery failures) and soft bounces (temporary delivery failures). They explain how to automatically remove hard bounces from email lists and implement strategies for handling soft bounces to maintain a clean and responsive email list.